A few days ago I posted on the subject of not posting your resume on every job board you can find.
Taking a step back, many people often wonder if they should even post their resume on an online job board(s) in the first place. Obviously at the end of the day it’s your choice but here are a few things to consider:
1. You can lose your ability to conduct a covert job search: If your resume is posted publicly so that anyone can search for it, anyone can therefore find it. How will you explain yourself if your boss or someone else in your current employer sees your resume on one of those job boards? It would cause a few question to arise I’m sure.
2. You’re going to get to know a lot of recruiters: Depending on the job board(s) you’re posting your resume to, you’ll probably find that many if not most of the people contacting you for jobs aren’t actual hiring managers but recruiters.
3. You’re probably competing with hundreds of other people: Every job that appears on the major job boards probably gets ready by hundreds (or more) other people so there’s your competition for often just 1 job. Obviously your odds at getting a job decrease as more people apply for it using the same method you do and it becomes more difficult to separate yourself from them.
How can you improve your odds of conducting a confidential job search and still get some value?
Depending on your profession, you might find that there are industry or job-specific job boards that might help to decrease the number of people applying for the same jobs you are but are also more focused to your interests too.
You can also consider either posting your resume as confidential and/or not posting your resume at all and simply setting up job agents (ie. saved searches) to alert you when a suitable job arises so that you maintain control of your resume rather than posting it publicly.
